Rockstar Games, the developer behind the Grand Theft Auto series, has been targeted by a cyberattack for the second time in three years. The hacker group ShinyHunters claims to have accessed a third-party server and is demanding a ransom, with a deadline of 14 April to enter negotiations.
In a post on its leak site, ShinyHunters warned: “Rockstar Games. Your … data was compromised … Pay or leak.” The group stated: “This is a final warning to reach out by 14 Apr 2026 before we leak along with several annoying (digital) problems that’ll come your way. Make the right decision, don’t be the next headline.”
Rockstar downplayed the incident, saying in a statement: “We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach. This incident has no impact on our organisation or our players.” The company did not specify what data was taken.
ShinyHunters is linked to the Com, a loose affiliation of cybercriminals, largely English-speaking and aged 16 to 25. Aiden Sinnott, principal threat researcher at Sophos, said: “They are very similar in terms of their demographic to lots of other groups under the Com umbrella.” The group has previously claimed attacks on Microsoft, Cisco, Ticketmaster and Pornhub.
This breach follows a 2022 incident where a teenager from the Lapsus$ hacking collective leaked 90 minutes of Grand Theft Auto VI footage. The offender, Arion Kurtaj, received an indefinite hospital order. Rockstar said the breach cost $5 million and thousands of staff hours. Grand Theft Auto VI, in development for nearly a decade, is estimated to cost close to $2 billion and is scheduled for release on 19 November this year, delayed from autumn 2025.
